G20 Needs to Help in Increasing Available Funds to WHO: Mansukh Mandaviya

The meeting was held on 'Concrete proposals to strengthen global health financing governance'.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

(Photo: Twitter)

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, on Friday, 29 October, said that G20 needs to help in increasing available funds to WHO. Primarily those which are not earmarked, besides supporting ongoing multi-stakeholder mechanisms such as GAVI, CEPI, ACT-A with a specific focus on equitable and affordable access.

Addressing the G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting through video conferencing, Mandaviya said that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the importance of International Health Regulations and the need for strengthening global health governance.

The G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting was held on 'Concrete proposals to strengthen global health financing governance'.

"Presently, several parallel proposals are being discussed in multiple forums, including the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR's) Global Health Threats Council, IHR review, need for a framework, convention or any other instrument on pandemic management and G20 proposal of Joint Health and Financing task force to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response."

Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister

He added that India proposes that the centrality of WHO needs to be maintained in the health arena while supporting the proposal for a Joint Health and Financing Task force.

India also proposes that while multiple entities with overlapping mandates are delving into the issue of pandemic preparedness and response, a clearly defined complementarity of all such initiatives being seamlessly woven to create global health emergency management architecture is the need of the hour, said Mandaviya.

He underlined the need to synchronise these multilateral initiatives amongst member states as per their local context at the national level.

He said, "In a pandemic no one is safe until everyone is safe. In this context, I quote our Prime Minister Modi when he mentioned that everyone's support, everyone's development, everyone's trust, and everyone's efforts are vital for success".